Empty the Bench

- In his debut column for Yahoo! Sports, Michael Silver piques our interest for his future work in relating two especially good stories that haven’t gotten much press. First, he points out that St. Louis Rams pass-rush specialist Leonard Little may not have a conscience. After already killing someone while driving under the influence, the big man was caught drinking and driving again… but escaped further sentencing after evidence was proven “inadmissible under Missouri law because of the unreliability of portable equipment” used to measure his blood-alcohol level at the time of arrest. For the record, it was nearly double the state’s legal limit. Classy guy.

On a lighter note, Silver fleshes out the story that broke last week about New Orleans Saints linebacker Scott Fujita getting injured during a team trip to a Mississippi water park. Apparently, Fujita has a history of “owning” waterslides. Click here for more on both stories. Nice work, Mr. Silver–but are you really comfortable with that bio photo?

- We’ve caught a little flack for failing to rank New York Jets running back Thomas Jones in our Top 30 Running Backs Rankings (found here and here). It’s not that we forgot about him–it’s more that we unanimously want nothing to do with the Jets offense. That Jones is already missing time can’t be a good sign.

- The Ghosts of Wayne Fontes (a participant fodder in this year’s ETB Fantasy Football Invitational) discusses the strategy of handcuffing top running backs with their backups. More specifically, the Ghosts think it’s “stupid.”

- An excerpt from Tennessean writer Jim Wyatt’s account of Pacman Jones’ debut with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling: “Jones made a few comments during an in-ring interview before taking off his sweatshirt and showing off his tattooed body.” ETB could not confirm that a full three paragraphs further describing Jones’ tattooed body were cut before publication. Word is, though, that the phrase “rippling musculature and sinew” was used three times.

- Once upon a time there was an all-world professional sports prospect named Drew Henson. Eschewing football for a more lucrative baseball career, Henson left the starting QB job at the University of Michigan to sign with the New York Yankees. Well, that didn’t work out too well, so he turned back to football. With the Dallas Cowboys, Henson… flopped. Now, in an attempt to resurrect his once promising career, Henson is with the Minnesota Vikings, battling for a third-string job (behind Tarvaris Jackson and Brooks Bollinger, no less) with somebody named Tyler Thigpen from Coastal Carolina. The sad thing is, it looks like Henson won’t even beat out Thigpen.

- The “when will he be traded?” saga of Trent Green dragged on unnecessarily long all summer–all parties involved knew that eventually he’d end up in Miami. It seems Dolphins fans are eager for a return on that Green “investment,” as they’ve already booed him off the field. Lighten up, ‘Fins fans: at least you don’t have to worry about Joey or Daunte anymore.

- By the time you read this, it may be official already: the Kansas City Chiefs and unhappy running back Larry Johnson appear to be close on finalizing a contract extension. Barring a significant injury to LJ, this moves rookie Kolby Smith way down the Fantasy Sleepers list.

- Madden 2008, the video game you won’t stop playing for the next 6 or 7 months, will play sporadically the following 2 months, then deem worthless when the 2009 edition hits the shelves. Here’s a detailed review of this year’s version. Boom! Thwap! Favre!

- The Arizona Cardinals’ season is already off to a smashing start.

- It seems that it took two staff writers for The Denver Post to put together this very well-written piece about Gerard Warren. Favorite sentence: “Warren is a tackle who can penetrate the backfield.” Poetic, to the last…